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Dawson eventually made it to work at his office at DMACC's West Campus in West Des Moines.

He was driving from his home to work along Highway 5 Wednesday morning when "it was like an explosion, it was just like kaboom!"

His car was hit by lightning as storms rolled through the Des Moines metro area. He said is was "almost like a bomb blew up in my car and then all of a sudden the lights in my car started flashing, lost power, no power steering."

"Never heard a bomb go off, but I've heard M-80s and cherry bombs go off pretty close, and it sounded just like that. I thought maybe all four tires were blown up, they were gone," said Dawson.

The tires on his Nissan Altima are mostly OK but "the rubber is kinda scorched and the metal is actually melted, probably where it exited."

Now, the car won't even turn on. A service manager at Hummel's Nissan, John Stokka, said he's seen it before.

"What we'll find is the electronics are pretty much gone. They cannot take that voltage," said Stokka.

He said that with the computer components fried, the bill can be upwards of $15,000.

"I mean, I was shocked. Not literally shocked, but I was like 'What happened?'" said Dawson.

He said he was shaken up, but doing a lot better by the time he walked into work holding his umbrella.

"Just before I got to the door, another bolt of lightning came down, sounded right behind me. I didn't get hit again so I really feel lucky. Because I lived through the first and the second didn't hit me, so it was kind of a lucky day," said Dawson. "It seemed like it was following me this morning."

According to the Lightning Safety Institute, people inside vehicles are generally protected by lightning as the current travels mostly on the metal frame of the car.

Stokka said this is the third car hit by lightning in the past year. He said they rarely see any exterior damage, but the cars are always expensive to fix.